英國維多利亞女王在位期間是一個非常重要的時期，不僅僅是在英國的內政上有許多重大的改革法案，在文化、藝術等等都有非常良好的發展。外交上也有許多的發展，除了擁有非常龐大的殖民地之外，對外的戰爭也從中獲取許多利益。在此我們可以注意到的是，英國這時期正是立憲君主制，首相的權力擴大，君主的地位已經受到限制，所以在維多利亞女王時期的首相是非常重要的，因為他們也決定了英國的對外政策。在當時的首相較具代表性的分別有帕默斯頓、狄斯雷利與格雷史東三位，本文探討分析這三位首相的生長背景所帶給彼此的影響，造成日後三位首相面對不同外交事務時，所採取的外交政策為何，並且研究這三位首相在各自的政治生涯中，有哪些較具代表性的作為，並且從中可以得知，這三位首相如何運用他們所堅持的外交政策，來為英國帶來一次又一次的龐大利益。本文對維多利亞女王時期的外交成果，主要以鴉片戰爭、克里米亞戰爭與波爾戰爭三場作研究，希望可以從這三場戰爭中，得到英國運用了哪些外交政策，加上從英國議會的討論中，得知英國是站在何種角度，為英國來設想，謀取對英國最有利的政策來實行。19世紀的歐洲，適逢拿破崙戰爭的結束，梅特涅召開維也納會議，此會議對當時的歐洲是非常有意義的，改變了原有的歐洲體系之外，除了歐洲會議制度，權力平衡的觀念也很重要，英國在此時除了採取了歐陸上的權力平衡外，更是運用先天優勢的地理位置，不僅在對英國不想參與的事務選擇性避免掉，更可以挑選對英國最有利的方式去實行外交政策，將孤立政策運用的非常得當。加上19世紀的歐洲由於工業革命的完成，重商主義的盛行，在龐大的原物料與市場需求下，帝國主義在此刻也到達了最高峰，不僅僅是在歐洲各國實行帝國主義，英國除了運用帝國主義，還擅於運用權力平衡與孤立政策，讓英國可以在每一次的對外事務中，獲得龐大的利益與殖民地，讓英國成就了日不落帝國的美名。During the reign of the British Queen Victoria, it’s a very important period. It is well-developed in arts and cultures. There are not only lots of significant policies, in Britain domestically, but diplomatically, the UK government has gained numerous colonies and many interests from wars. We can realize that the UK is constitutional monarchy, the prime minister has the absolute power, while the power of the king or queen is limited. As a result, prime ministers play very important role in this period, they decide the foreign policy of UK.

There are three typical prime ministers, John Palmerston, Benjamin Disraeli, and William Gladstone. This thesis analyzes the life background of the three prime ministers. When they face different foreign affairs in the future, what foreign policy will they adopt? What are the most remarkable behaviors in their politic career? And we can know that how these three prime ministers insist on their policies, and bring huge interests for UK. The thesis about the foreign effort during the period of Queen Victory mainly discuss on Opium War, Crimean War, and Boer Wars. We can see what foreign policy UK use in three wars. In addition to the debates in the UK parliament, we can realize in which angles did these three ministers used the most advantageous policies for UK. After the Napoleon war, the Foreign Minister of Austrian Empire, Klemens von Metternich holds Congress of Vienna. This is a very meaningful congress for Europe at that time. It changes the original system of Europe, and it forms the congress system. Also, the concept of “balance of power” is very important. In this time, UK not only uses the balance of power in Europe, but takes advantages of their geography positions. UK chooses the most advantageous way to put their foreign policies into practice, and uses the Isolationism very well. Besides, due to the industrial revolution in 19 century in Europe, the mercantilism is prevailed, and the large market demand of original materials, the imperialism reaches its climax. UK not only use imperialism, but use the policy of isolation and “balance of power”, as a result, they gain as many colonies and interests as they can from every wars, and they become the British Empire, on which the sun never set.